Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

A Japanese Vase Wrought in Metals

Marjorie Allen Seiffert

FIVE harsh black birds in shining bronze come crying

Into a silver sky.

Piercing and jubilant is the shape of their flying;

Their beaks are pointed with delight,

Curved sharply with desire.

The passionate direction of their flight,

Clear and high,

Stretches their bodies taut like humming wire.

The cold wind blows into angry patterns the jet-bright

Feathers of their wings;

Their claws curl loosely, safely, about nothingness—

They clasp no things.

Direction and desire they possess,

By which in sharp, unswerving flight they hold

Across an iron sea to the golden beach

Whereon lies carrion, their feast: a shore of gold

That birds wrought on a vase can never reach.